10 Best Performances In War Movies

Colonel Kurtz didn’t end up how director Francis Ford Coppola had imagined. The character laid out in the script had to be rethought on the fly when Brando, drunk on power and at the height of unprofessionalism, turned up late, overweight, and without having read the material provided to him.

Concessions were made, Brando was filmed in a way to make him look tall, rather than fat, and he was allowed to improvise on camera, rambling at length with Coppola editing his diatribes to something usable.

Amazingly, it actually worked. Apocalypse Now is a descent into madness, with a famously troubled, chaotic shoot. It stands to reason that Kurtz, the heart of the film, is the most wild element yet. Brando’s work isn’t something that could - or should - be taught in drama school, but the edge of danger he brings to the film is among its most memorable elements.

Coppola wisely limits Kurtz’s screentime - there was only so much worthwhile material he could get out of the troublesome actor - but that brings a real heft to the character’s appearances. Kurtz is billed as this mythical character of incredible power - Brando makes it so.